The Blooded
by katamari3524
Summary: Sixteen years after the end of the series, in Ba Sing Se, two teens embark upon what seems like an ordinary rainy day.  Very quickly, the two come to a town.  Please review.
1. Chapter 1

The Blooded

It had been raining that day. For a world that had seemed parched for months, a simple rainstorm seemed wonderful. Children played, farmers rejoiced, and ordinary people smiled at a much needed rain. But, that was when it first started to fall.

The ground was parched. It needed the rain, but there was simply too much falling. Before too long, the ground became saturated. Rivers of rainwater flowed across the roads. And, it just kept falling.

Everything grew worse as the day went on. Eventually the rains stopped, and all of the excitement of a summer's day's rains turned into a veritable depression of mud. What were once dusty dirt roads became virtual canals of mud. And, Ba Sing Se merely attempted to muddle through. Shopkeepers kept mops and buckets handy in some mad attempt to keep their floors cleaner than their competition. The upper class looked down at the misery through the monorail far above. And, for the more average person, the day went on. Most avoided going outside if they could at all avoid it. But, for the few who ventured out into the morass, they found mixed levels of difficulty.

Most who once wore uniforms and swore to rid their land of the plague of invaders found constant difficulty. Their heavy stepping style found them getting caught more and more often. For some, thoughts came of their sacrifices and their returns. For others, they at least took hope in the fact that others share their suffering. All across the capital, screams could be heard from children once at play who had lost their shoes to the mud. Teenage girls complained about their formal clothes becoming soiled so quickly. Teenage boys found that their Earth Soccer games do not spare themselves from the mud, and some lamented with thoughts of their mothers' reactions at their clothes. Even for the few that managed to stay reasonably clean, the new boys in uniforms with high boots, they found nearly constant requests for help.

Yet, all of their difficulties seemed null compared to the cart drivers. The wheels of their carts cut into of the mud in mere seconds and trenches formed behind their wheels. Their ostrich horses' feet dug, plowing deep into the mud. So, they struggle desperately to escape. Young Earthbenders helped some, pulling the poor beast's feet out of the mud, but for other animals, help did not come. Their muscles fatigued, and with each pull, they sank farther and farther into the mud. The cart drivers cursed. They cursed the rain. They cursed their animals. They cursed their deliveries. And, as they did, shopkeepers yelled out at them to stop. The drivers cursed back, and as they did, the entire situation devolved into mere noise. Children cried as they walked by, scared by the cursing, and further scared by thoughts of their parents' reactions at their awful, muddy, and shoeless states.

Yet, through this slow crawl of people sloughing through the mud, two lone souls ran, one male, one female. Their pace was not fast. By no standards could it ever be considered a sprint. Their pace was far too slow, having been barely above a jogs pace. But, even a jogs pace seemed to be faster than anything else imaginable trying to push through that mud.

Their running did not come with ease, though. They struggled. With each and every breath, they seemed to push through utter exhaustion. With each and every step, their arms seemed to flail wildly, desperately attempting to harden the mud in front of them with Earthbending. With each and every heartbeat, they seemed to keep scanning the ground in front of them, searching for something. And, as they did, everyone watched them.

To some they were a sort of wild sideshow attraction. They hooped, they hollered, they joked about the two odd teens, refusing to conform. To others, the male and the female appeared radically different. Especially to mothers and older veterans, the male appeared to be training. They viewed him as a future defender of their great city, a hero who pushed on even through fatigue and pain. They smiled even through their own weariness, knowing that their country has such a great person to defend it.

Yet, only the male received such great perceptions. The female received no smiles, no adoration, only glares. In a society where girls took pride in the fact that they could balance a full tray of tea cups on their head, she appeared as a wild child by thinking simplistically. In a society where girls prided themselves on dressing properly, she always seemed to dress as if she was a male. In a society where girls her age always seemed to spend hours on doing their hair, she seemed to merely braid her hair in a moment and continue on with her life. Even her Earthbending seemed odd. Compared to conventional styles where Benders stayed in one place and attack from there, she appeared to be constantly moving, almost seeming to be in a sort of odd and off beat dance. She could even be heard to hum some odd tune once in a great while, the song inside her escaping as her brother jokingly called it. But, nobody ever recognized it, even her.

By no standards could it be said that she was immune to the fashion obsessions of the time. She merely could never afford it. But, there had been occasions where she could be seen staring at the dresses at the window of each shop, longing for a day when she could escape the world she lived, a day when her dirty world would seem like an odd dream amongst the cleanness of affluence. But, at that time, she had only her dreams.

Regrettably, while she ran, a dress caught her eye. She turned her head to see it, with a look of longing. After all was said and done, it was her last time to long such thing. Just for a second or two, she looked toward that which she could never have. She forgot the world for a short second. But, like a dream, she awoke. Her thoughts had returned to the world, and she realized what had happened in those short seconds.

The male, her older brother, had stopped.

She didn't have the time for wondering why he had stopped. She didn't have time to notice why he was standing and apparently waiting for her to catch up. She didn't have time to notice the street he was looking down. She didn't have time to notice the look in his eyes, nor the slight bruises on his arm, nor the dirt and scratches on his face. She merely let out a cuss as she slammed right into him.

"Fuck."

Her voice, at that moment, was unpleasant and undignified. If a voice could be said to be the music, hers would be considered to be the noise of an untrained band of rabid monkeys. Yet, her older brother barely had time to notice it before she ran into him.

Their collision was relatively comical. The male fell forward face-first into the mud, leaving an indentation around him. The female fell backwards, landing flat on her back. Both appeared as if they had died, lying flat on the ground. And, for a few seconds both laid still in the mud, almost appearing to be waiting for the other to get up first.

But, after that moment, the female springs to her feet. As she cusses at her brother, her arms flail violently, slightly moving the mud beneath her as she yells out each syllable.

"Damnit Yatzen, warn me when you decide to drop anchor!"

For a moment, her brother, Yatzen merely appeared to close his hands around the mud. But, after a second, his fingers curl into a fist, and after what would have seemed like a breath, he begins to push himself to his feet. He pulled his feet in toward his body, when he finally reached as far as he could have gone using just his arms. Then he began to stand up straight. Yet, his rise was slower, almost appearing as if a man either twice his age or twice his weight attempted the same. He was always an odd child, though. It was always something odd, something unnoticeable except to trained eyes scrutinizing him. Perhaps his skin was a bit too dark. Perhaps it was that his forearms were a bit too long. Perhaps it was merely his odd forward slouch. Few had known him well enough to really notice such minor things, and for the average person, he was yet another oddball in a world of freaks.

Yatzen was covered in mud. His entire front, from head to toe, was covered in the sludge. It seemed darker on him as well. He towered over his sister as well. When the two stood on even ground, the crown of his sister's head fell only around his pectoral muscles. So, as he turned around to look at his sister, he did not look like a teen looking toward his fraternal twin. Instead, he looked like something out of a nightmare, a horrid brown silhouette looming over a young woman.

For a few moments, his sister just looked at her brother, seemingly wondering if her brother had decided to merely scare her as a portion of some bizarre prank. There was no prank, in reality. Her brother was merely tired. The mud hid his heavy breathing's visual signs. His sister's own heavy breathing hid his breathing's audible signs. The weight of the mud had caused his difficulty with getting to his feet. Still, his sister had never thought of that. She merely thought of all the old pranks, and how wrong it was to joke on that day.

"Oh look, a monster," she stated monotonically and sarcastically. "Well, die."

Her movement was swift. In a single half turn and step, she denied her brother of his precious footing, and he fell once again into the mud.

"Muzen, you sonuvabitch," Yatzen said to his sister. His statement fell on deaf ears, though. She wouldn't listen. In reality, she was turned away from him, protesting his action on such a day.

Yatzen's face was half buried in the mud. Yet, one of his eyes had finally been uncovered. And, his pupil stayed fixed on his sister. To him, she acted like everything was a joke, as if tripping him was all some part of some prank.

He got up quickly that time. As if all his muscles awoke instantly, he seemed to merely explode to his feet. And, even through his windedness, he found the strength to Earthbend. In a single step, and a mere downward swing of his arms, the mud peeled itself off of his body and clothes.

His sister, Muzen, had kept her back to him. So, she didn't see as her older brother moved up to her. His hand closed around her arm. Muzen for a few seconds attempted to keep looking away. And, while she did, her brother stomped down on his right foot. In that moment, he Earthbended once more, that time pulling the mud off his sister's back. It returned to the ground as she turned to see her brother, her face surprised.

"Muzen, quit messing around for a single second. We've got work to do, and I doubt staring away and pouting would ever help with that," Yatzen stated to her. His voice was quieter than usual, as if he didn't want others to hear such things. "You do see him, right?" Muzen began looking around, searching for whomever Yatzen seemed to be talking about. "No, no don't do that. If you look like you're scanning for someone, you'll draw attention to himself. He's just walking past that cabbage stand. Look at him out of the corner of your eye."

For a moment, Muzen hesitated, but then did as she was ordered, merely peering toward the cabbage vendor.

And, out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a small boy, perhaps only as old as eight. He was dressed plainly, merely another face in a crowd to anyone but Muzen and Yatzen. For the two, he was of vital importance.

"You see him now, don't you: little Shifu Lee off to buy snacks for his big brothers. What's it going to be, little Shifu? Your brothers hate cabbages. We all know that. Will it be chicken or sweets?"

"I'm not so sure," Muzen whispered over to her brother, smiling as if she were crazed. "That cabbage merchant is making a pretty good sales pitch."

"Shut it!" Yatzen snapped out, as he watched the little boy buy three chicken legs and turn toward the two.

"What if he sees us and tells his brothers that we're around. Our entire plan could be ruined."

He began to walk toward the two, although he was well beyond any sort of range where he could recognize them.

"Muzen, just act natural. He doesn't know what we're up to. And, he has no reason to be suspicious of us. Don't worry."

"But, he'll still tell his brothers that he saw us. And, they might get suspicious," Muzen whispered. She was talking faster, showing her rising apprehension of the child rapidly weaving through crowds as he walked toward the two.

"Calm down, if you keep whispering, he'll hear you and get suspicious."

The child kept walking toward the two, being well within distance to easily recognize them.

"Oh, I just know that this is going to end badly," Muzen whispered out before Yatzen let go of her arm. Shifu was within listening distance by that point. And, he just kept on walking closer, closer until he was right in front of them.

"Hey Muzen. Hey Yatzen. Hope your mom gets better soon," Shifu said as he stopped for a second. And then, he kept walking right past the two.

For a minute, Muzen and Yatzen remained silent. In reality both had their nervousness, but Yatzen had hid it better. But, in that moment where Shifu had walked right past the two, the two had realized their paranoia. Shifu had kept walking, thinking nothing of them.

Yatzen turned to see where he had headed. And, he somewhat grinned. The boy had walked down an old alleyway. The seclusion was almost too convenient.

"Muzen, come on. I think we found the Lee's."

They followed nonchalantly, trying to not seem as if they are following Shifu, but instead just walking over by the shops. They ogled the odd trinkets that some salesmen tried to pawn off as being from around the world. They smelled the expensive foods, looked interestedly at the cheaper foods, and watched the cabbage vendor's apparent infatuation with his cabbages from a safe distance.

Yet, slowly, the two made their way into that same alleyway.

In reality, the alleyway was a sort of bottleneck leading to an empty lot between three apartment buildings. Muzen and Yatzen both knew that. They had played in that lot when they had been younger, having odd adventures amongst the ruins of garbage that had once accumulated there. Most of the trash had been removed due to health concerns, but most of the larger pieces, barrels, old furniture, and odd pieces of larger junk, had stayed. It was low traffic, anyway. Weeds and grass had taken back the lot slightly, making the ground there into an oddly island area amongst the canals of mud. So, as they walked down that alleyway, they both knew exactly where the Lee's would be. They knew how they would act and how they would win.

As they entered the lot, everything was as they had expected, and they could see the Lee's. There were three all in all: Liu, their eldest; Guang, their middle; and Shifu, their youngest.

Right as the two entered the empty lot, they were seen by the three. And, right then and there, Liu jumped to his feet. For a second he looked over the two odd travelers before smiling slightly.

"Pleasure to see you two, Yatzen and Muzen! How's your mother doing?"

For a second, Yatzen seemed surprised at the statement's kindness. By some standards, the two were walking into another's home, without warning or knocking, and the two were being treated as if they were dinner guests. But, after a second, he responded.

"She's fine, but just a little tired."

"Oh, that's good to hear," Liu stated, "I had heard that it did not look too fortunate. Well, you two can hang out if you want to. It's not like I really own this depressing shithole."

And, with that, Muzen and Yatzen turned and went their separate ways. There was a slight glance before they separated: a short look to remind each other of the plan. Muzen went toward Shifu who happened to be sitting on and old barrel and eating his chicken leg. And, at the same time, Yatzen went toward Guang.

Guang wasn't a skinny person. Frankly, he was a stereotypical fat-ass. While the other two had merely started eating, Guang had managed to finish his chicken and was leaning up against the wall. He had made a mess of himself. Grease had managed to drip off his snack and made looking at his face or hands a harrowing measure for any proper person.

Still, Yatzen was by no standards proper and, therefore, stood next to him. And, for a second, there was silence amongst the two. Yatzen merely watched as his sister walked over to the young Shifu. He watched as the young child held his food out in a sharing gesture, his sister declined, only to sit next to him on a separate barrel. The young child blushed slightly as Muzen sat down. Perhaps at that time, Shifu had a simple childish crush on Muzen. He had always acted more than a little friendly around Muzen, and at some points had seemed to desire her attention. Still, what was to happen on that day would forever destroy that childhood crush that little Shifu had.

"Hey Guang," Yatzen blurted out, "Remember that time that you called my sister ugly?" For a second Guang merely looked at Yatzen with a look of confusion at his odd question. "The girls that were around to hear that really attacked her. She was even trying to look prettier that day. But all you had to say was that her makeup looked like a clown's, and all the girls pounced on her like Armadillo Lions. I really have to admit it, you outdid yourself. You, my friend, may have succeeded in making her cry faster than anyone else, in her life. With the exception of that old bitch of course."

For a second, Guang looked down, apparently shamed by Yatzen bringing up such an old statement. He thought back on that statement. It had seemed like such a minor incidence. He couldn't even recall why he had done it. Was he having a bad day? Had Muzen tried flirting with him? Had he tried to phrase it as a joke? His brothers had laughed about it. Or at least his older brother had. Had little Shifu? He couldn't remember. Everything seemed so odd.

"You know what I'm going to do now, don't you?" Yatzen asked. Guang didn't respond, though. He still was too confused and guilty feeling to even guess at the Yatzen's actions. "Goodnight."

Guang didn't foresee what was to happen. He hadn't expected Yatzen to have brought up such an odd and trivial matter. Even as he did, Guang never expected Yatzen to become as violent as he did.

In a split second, Yatzen had managed to plant his knee firmly into Guang's chest. And, there was an odd moment of silence as Yatzen's knee pulled away from his chest. As his body writhed slightly in reaction to the hit, it seemed as if the birds had stopped chirping, and the shopkeepers had stopped yelling, and all the all too typical sounds of a city street had seemed to merely stop. Time seemed to slow as head lurched forward, he pulled his arms around his chest, and his body began to fall to a knee. For a long second, Guang merely kneeled, his face showing the pain of Yatzen's kick.

But, all of the sudden, Gang's face lurched forward, and all the sounds and all the tempo of a normal day returned.

It was his stomach exploding outward that caused everything to return. Bits of undigested chicken, some unrecognizable, halfway digested food, and bile splattered across the grass. Guang lurched forward again, this time forcing up the remnants of his stomach. His brothers watched him, concerned and mildly amused by the oddity of seeing someone, even their brother, vomit. The noise was terrible, disgusting enough to make Muzen force her hand over her mouth, appearing to be a sign of disgust. In reality though, merely the sight and smell of Guang vomiting had made Muzen feel sick enough that her own body showed a desire to puke.

And, as Guang spat out the last remnants of whatever had stayed in his mouth, Yatzen's shadow loomed over him. A moment of terror shot through him. He could never understand exactly why, though. Yatzen lacked that truly terrifying aura that some had. For a moment in hindsight, he thought that his body was afraid of the further trauma that Yatzen might induce. But, he had merely banished it as a passing thought.

Regardless of the reason for the fear, as Yatzen's shadow loomed over him and crept over his back, hunched over with vomit still dripping off his chin, Guang couldn't help but look toward Yatzen with confusion in his eyes.

For a brief second, Yatzen appeared unstoppable to Guang, although he couldn't explain why. But, Guang was only fully aware of his terror for a few seconds. After that, the darkness of unconsciousness closed in.

A simple kick caused Guang to be rendered unconscious. In a mere instant, Yatzen's foot had shot up, arcing as it made clean simple contact with the jawbone. The hit hadn't shattered it, nor had it even cracked the bone, and by some miracle of luck, Guang's teeth were remarkably undamaged in the hit. All Burt would feel as he woke up was a rather vicious aching all around his mouth. But, that was a long way away.

Guang's eyes fell toward the sky, as they closed. And, after that, his body fell forward. He landed on his chest, remarkably again doing very little long term damage, although his clothes were ruined. He had landed in his own vomit. But, he wouldn't realize it, and while he lay unconscious on it, the stench and mere view of it was hidden.

For a second, Yatzen merely looked upon the unconscious being, with an emotionless look. But, after that, his face merely seemed to turn to look toward Liu, and he smiled.

As Liu looked into Yatzen's eyes with a look of neither surprise nor anger, Yatzen merely began to swagger toward him.

Liu neither understood why Yatzen had attacked his brother, nor did he care. He was an older brother, with his only desire being to, frankly, kick the ass of anyone who would do his little brothers harm. And, Yatzen was the only person.

He didn't even look toward Muzen. As far as he was concerned, Muzen was a terrified spectator, like his little brother. So, as he dashed toward Yatzen, he never thought of what she would do.

His dash was impressive. He was an athletic person: faster than most, quick enough to pick up speed with the best runners, stronger that many, capable of enduring the pain of training, and capable of continuing when most were weary. Yet, instead of trying to evade the impressive force that came against him, Yatzen merely stood against him, as if he merely seemed to be unimpressed with Liu, as if he expected him to fall just as quickly as Guang had. Yet, that was not the case.

As Liu came right before Yatzen, there was a punch thrown. It was an impressive punch. It was fast, and Yatzen had seemed to put a good amount of force into the punch. But, it fell like water upon rocks. Due to a mixture of rage and adrenaline, Liu didn't feel Yatzen's fist pounding into his stomach. And, Yatzen seemed to be swept away by the raw force of Liu.

As his back slammed against the wall, Liu twisted his arm, so that his entire forearm seemed to crush Yatzen's neck. And, as he did, he continued pushing, seeming to want to push Yatzen through the wall.

Liu was larger than Yatzen. He towered over Yatzen by a good head, and over most people. So, as his forearm pushed on Yatzen's trachea harder and harder, Yatzen could only flail like a pathetic child, powerless and helpless. Or at least, that was how it seemed.

Yatzen's deception hid everything well. As he flailed desperately, Liu never saw Yatzen slam his hand against the wall. He never saw the brick go flying out at him, powered by Yatzen's Bending. And, he never saw it hit him.

It knocked the wind out of Liu, and it slammed into him hard enough to push him away from Yatzen. It would hurt worse later, and leave a particularly memorable bruise. But, it didn't matter at the time.

There was a lull in the fight after that hit. As Yatzen fell to his feet and felt those first few gasping breaths, Liu too stopped, trying to regain his breath. Muzen and Shifu kept watching, the two witnesses to this confrontation. As Liu had slammed into Yatzen, little Shifu had smiled as if someone had given him a bag of candy. When, the brick had slammed into Liu's stomach, Shifu had cringed slightly. But, Muzen was nowhere near as engrossed in the fight as Shifu was. She merely kept an emotionless look on her face, one that neither suggested joy nor sadness as the fight ensued.

And, after a few seconds of rest, Yatzen and Liu both rose to their feet.

"So, you want to play Earthbender, eh?" Liu asked, "Fine, I'll see to it that your amateurish mockery of Bending gets crushed by my superior Earthbending. It cost my parents a good amount to put me through all those classes. Now, I'll show you just what proper training can do for someone."

"The streets a far better teacher than those money grubbing old men, Liu," Yatzen said.

And, as soon as Yatzen finished that statement, there was an eerie hesitation between the two. Both were waiting for the other to make the first move, both were waiting for the other to make themselves vulnerable, and both were a bit afraid of being the aggressive fool. It seemed to pass for an eternity, both merely playing some mental game of twitching forward, only to stop short of moving.

But, one of those twitches had follow-through. It turned into the beginning of a Bending move, much to Yatzen's dismay. Liu twitched, but then stepped forward. Dirt and rocks came thrusting up, as if a horrendously formed pillar had shot up from the ground. It got close to hitting Yatzen. It got very close. In a spit second twitch reaction, Yatzen barely managed to roll himself right around the pillar of earth.

Within a second, Liu continued his attack. He kept stomping, and pillars of earth kept on springing up out of the ground. Yatzen kept dodging them. Without any doubt, Yatzen was fast on his feet. He was fast enough to always dodge each hit. Each time a pillar seemed to rise, Yatzen would merely sidestep it. By some standards, it seemed as if he was copying one of Muzen's bizarre Bending dances. He would sidestep one pillar, take a step forward to dodge the next, and then take a step backwards to dodge a later one. And, he made it seem as if the rising pillars were in slow motion, and dodging them was easy.

But, Liu wasn't stupid. Only a fool would continue the same attack over and over again without success or a hint at success. Liu understood that, but he was a bit too clever to show off fancier Bending.

Yatzen realized it eventually. The pillars were boxing him in, trapping him so he couldn't help but get hit. By the time Yatzen had realized it though, it was all too late. He had never seen that Liu had been forcing up two pillars at the same time. As Yatzen dodged one pillar, he found himself squeezed up against another one. He was trapped. Pillars were nearly touching him on all sides. He hadn't realized it, but Liu had been playing a game of strategy with him, and had won.

Yet, Yatzen was a bit too resilient to be defeated that easily. Within a single second, he had made his move. A single quick jab to a pillar in Liu's direction sent a rock flying toward him. It was fast, far faster than anything Liu had bent. It was aimed directly at his face too. With those two factors combined, it looked like it would ravage his face, at the very least break his nose and knock a few teeth out. As it flew toward Liu, one would swear that it should have broken him. And, Liu barely saw it coming.

He did dodge it. He saw it and had just quick enough reactions to move out of the way, but when he did, he was off balance. For Yatzen, it was just what he needed. As Liu stumbled backwards, Yatzen simultaneously escaped from his trap and went on the offensive.

With a single kick to it, a small explosion of mud seeped out from the bottom of a pillar. It hid the truth all too well. Yatzen had forced a crack in the pillar that had extended through it.

The pillar with the crack was in Liu's direction. So, as Yatzen kicked it again, he knew where it was going. He slammed it with incredible force, force enough to send it hurtling toward its maker.

Yatzen didn't stop there. As the pillar propelled forward, he slammed his fists into the ground, creating a sort of twisted earthen wave. It wasn't as elegant as the traditional Earthbending styles that the parents and teachers had taught the children. Compared to the sort of gentle rises that were the norm for styles at that time, Yatzen's Earthbending seemed to form into a sort of wave of rock, as if a landslide had seemed to form and move horizontally.

It seemed to proceed as if nothing seemed to exist to challenge it. It seemed to devour all before it, crush all beneath itself, assimilate all, and grow larger as it proceeded. It destroyed the grass that had taken so long to form, ripping apart the sod and making a muddy looking patch of dirt in its place. It sped toward Liu, an all-consuming beast driven by Bending. For a second, it looked like it would consume him, and all that would be left was his crumpled body. But, that only lasted for a second.

In a second, a single stomping down of Liu's heels forced the ground beneath his very feet to form pillars. It came, Yatzen's Bending came, and when it did, Liu merely jumped over it. His pillars fell, devoured and destroyed by the tidal wave of earth. But, as Yatzen rose and ceased his bending, causing the earth to merely fall to a still pile, Liu stood tall.

For a second, the two seemed to stare one another down. Both appeared to be nearly mirrors of one another, big, strong, and heroic looking types that merely were raised in the wrong world. They were perhaps fifteen paces from each other in a back alley with old barrels and the remnants of old furniture, but, at least for Muzen, it felt as if the two were in the Earth Rumble bouts that she had heard about.

Seemingly in anticipation, Shifu jumped of his barrel. He stood halfway behind Muzen, who had slid off hers moments before. Terrified and attempting to hide, Shifu's face told a simple truth, of which he was unaware. He was afraid for his brother. Yet, Muzen seemed to have no fear of the attacks that were certain to fly everywhere, and she lacked fear for her brother.

And, as he cowered behind her, Muzen began to smile slightly. What followed, forced Shifu to look toward her in surprise. She began to hum a simple, lighthearted tune. As Shifu looked toward her face, she didn't look crazy. She merely seemed to show an interested and amazed calmness, as if she were watching a play that she had seen a thousand times before.

Right as Muzen began humming her first note, the clash began anew. With a single step forward, Yatzen forced up a boulder sized chunk of the muddy earth. It hovered right beneath his hand, but behind him.

His throw of it toward Liu was wild, at best. He seemed to slam his weight around in a sort of spin, using heavy stomping steps as he seemed to throw his weight from foot to foot. And, the piece of earth followed. It followed as he spun, slightly picking up speed. Then, as Yatzen's foot hit the ground for the last time in his lazy dance of a spin, he seemed to throw the piece of earth toward Liu.

As the earth went flying, Yatzen slightly staggered, being slightly off-balance and dizzy from the spin. Still, he could watch as the boulder flew toward Liu.

Liu's response was typical of that time and his training. In a single step, he punched the boulder, and it seemed to crumble before his fist. At first it broke into halves, then rocks the size of a fist, and finally pebble sized dirt clumps.

Before the pebbles even finished falling, Liu attacked. He took a second step forward, one that seemed like he was lunging. But, as he stomped down, it was clear exactly had gone on.

A pillar began shooting up from the ground right in front of Yatzen, and a fast one at that. It was far faster than any of his pillars before. Yatzen barely dodged it. He didn't have time to attempt to merely sidestep it. In the split second that he had to move, he merely jumped backwards.

As he jumped backwards, it would have looked like he was going to cripple his chances of winning. Being ever on the ground was suicide in a fight, if only because of the time it takes to get up. It seemed like he was going to hit the ground, and Liu was going to unleash any technique that would offer a swift knock out. It appeared like Yatzen would be the loser of that clash, but appearances deceived.

While still in the midst of jumping backwards, for Yatzen, everything seemed to slow down. And, as time seemed to distort itself, Yatzen saw an option. The pillar was angled in such a way that it would shatter his rib cage. When Yatzen had dodged it, he had less jumped than thrown his upper body out of the way, and it just happened that his feet had left the ground while he did. Yet, his legs were close enough to still be able to hit the newly risen earth.

As Yatzen continued moving backwards, he kicked three times. All three times, he made decided contact with the earth. All three times, fist sized dirt clumps came flying out of the raised earth. And, for each of the three times his feet raised significantly higher, until they were nearly above his head.

While still falling backwards, Yatzen assumed a sort of fetal position, except his was not due to fear. He merely tucked his legs into his body, putting his head between his knees, so that when he would hit the ground, he would roll.

His back hit the ground first, and a sort of elegant move followed. Yatzen knew how to fall. He had tucked his chin into his chest, so he wouldn't crack it open. And, as he held it to his chest, he continued rolling backward. His knees touched the ground, then his shin and toes, and finally his feet.

It was, in that moment, Yatzen stood. His left leg kicked itself backward, and his right leg pushed him up. His arms stayed outward in some attempt to maintain balance. And, he could watch as his attack failed.

It was not due to poor aim. He was an excellent shot, and the clumps of earth had hurtled directly toward Liu. In a single sweeping kick, Liu crushed all three of the rocks before him.

For a second, the fight stopped. As if there was some intermission, the two merely seemed to stare toward one another, sizing up their opponent. It was if they were both waiting for the other to make the first move. For a second, the world seemed to grow silent before Yatzen and Liu both charged against each other. To Muzen, it seemed like armies were charging into battle. She watched with a sort of emotionless look. Right as the two collided, she closed her eyes. After a moment of the darkness of her eyelids, she opened her eyes into an oddly bright world.

_Mommy, what was daddy like?_

Your father? Well Muzen, he was a sailor, traveling all across the world fighting the evil Fire Nation during the war. _Really, mommy?_ Yep. He was… a hero, a great man, fearless, and unafraid of the unknown._ Where is he now mommy?_ Um, he's traveling._ Traveling? _ Yep, he's going all across the world, trading with everyone. I bet if you and Yatzen are good enough, he'll bring back all sorts of toys for you two to play with._ I hope he comes back home soon mommy._ I do too Muzen. I do to "Muzen?"

"Muzen?"

As the words entered her ear, they pulled Muzen back to the reality of the present. Once again, she found herself watching as her brother and Liu throw attack after attack at each other. Only short seconds had passed, yet those short seconds being adrift from everything made reality seem all the harsher. She could feel someone clutching her hand. She looks down, down at the young boy grabbing her hand, appearing to be somewhat worried.

"Are you okay?" Shifu's squeaky voice said to her.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Muzen responded. But, as it seemed to Shifu, she wasn't being completely honest. She sounded like she was holding back tears while she said it. And, there was a certain look of wistfulness, although Shifu didn't know it at the time.

For a second, she merely seemed to slip her fingers out of his hand. Shifu struggled slightly, but his hand fell as her fingertips left his palm. He watched as Muzen seemed to take step after step toward the fight.

She stopped after a few short strides, and she watched as her brother dodged another attack only to counterattack. Her feet moved slightly, almost instinctively searching for good ground while in her sort of offbeat dance.

And, she stopped.

Shifu had relatively light knowledge of the Bending Disciplines. He lacked any sort of Bending capability, and Bending at that time were viewed as something improper to do. But, he had watched his brother, staring as he had trained in schools. He had some knowledge of the Earthingbending stances. And, he recognized Muzen's stance. She was preparing to bend, but at who, he didn't know. As it turned out, he would find out in mere seconds.

She struck.

Although Shifu was barely aware of it, at the speed of a blink, Muzen had done her deed. It didn't seem real. All Shifu saw was his brother slip, and in a second, Yatzen had delivered a knockout blow. It didn't seem possible. Liu was the best Bender in Shifu's eyes. It seemed like there was no way he could have merely slipped. Then he saw Muzen. He saw her move her foot, appearing to recover from doing some sort of Earthbending technique. In a second, he began to understand. He wasn't sure exactly why or how, but Muzen had taken down his older brother. He merely watched as Muzen turned toward him.

The entire time she walked toward him, Muzen wore an emotionless face. Her eyes seemingly denied the world of showing any life, and as she walked, Shifu could faintly see Yatzen walking away from his brother. He shook as he tried look for a way out. But, he couldn't move. His legs wouldn't move; they refused to. So, he stood in terror as Muzen's shadow covered him.

For a second, there was silence. Shifu couldn't even bring himself to look up at Muzen's face, instead merely staring at her feet.

He watched as Muzen shifted her weight. He watched as Muzen's foot moved off the ground. He watched as she kicked. Yet, he didn't move. He felt and watched as her foot plowed right into his stomach.

He fell. Muzen's kick had been callously powerful. Tears fell down his cheeks, tears he had tried to hold inside himself as Muzen had walked toward him. And, Muzen turned and walked away.

Yet, before she could take five steps, Muzen could hear Shifu's voice. And, she couldn't help but turn and see a pathetic boy forcing himself to stand. He said merely one word.

"Why?"

For a moment, Muzen appeared to be surprised. But, she turned around walked back, and took a knee before the boy who seemed to be reeling from a single kick. She was at his level, kneeling down, and she looked him in the eyes. She had attacked him before. In cold blood she had done him physical harm. But, as she kneeled before the young child, she kept her voice down as she spoke, and she seemed to make her very tones seem gentle.

"I don't want my brother to hurt you. Please, stay down after this one."

"No! I won't! You'll have to break me down. I won't go down as easily as my brothers have. I won't."

For a second, Muzen closed her eyes, preparing to do something she really didn't want to do. But, after a second, she closed her hands into fists.

In that moment, Shifu's body went still. His shaking ceased. He merely took on a look of fear, as he looked toward Muzen.

As she stood up, she towered over the fearful child. She breathed in, desperately trying to psyche herself up for assaulting a child. As she breathed out, she had succeeded, more or less. She felt her leg raise, preparing for a swift kick.

But, as she was about to kick, she watched as her brother proceeded to deliver a simple punch across the child's face. Shifu was thrown by its sheer force. As he desperately struggled to remain awake, he retained consciousness for a few seconds after he hit the ground.

"Was that the last of them?" Muzen asked as she exited the alleyway. Shifu could recognize her voice, but his vision was fading too fast. At the time of hearing her voice, all he could see was two blurry shadows in a rapidly darkening world.

"Yep."

"That means all we have left to do is go… an…d… ge…t… ou… r… ba…"

Shifu's consciousness faded out at that point.

Around ten minutes later, he would wake up. His older brothers would be cursing and plotting against the two. And, he would get up, his jaw, stomach, and right side aching. Yet, he wouldn't feel that pain fully. He would feel something missing, as if something had been taken from him, yet something he could not define. He would follow his brothers to search for the two at their home. Yet, by the time they got there, Yatzen and Muzen would be gone. And, the Lee's would find out about a simple lie.

At the age of 36, Muzen's and Yatzen's mother, after five months of struggling with illness, had died.

The Lee's entered the two's former home, and found it to be immaculate. Muzen's and Yatzen's possessions were gone by that point, taken and packed away. Everything that seemed to have practical importance was gone; everything that lacked practicality was packed away.

They left that home, feeling a bit depressed, but Liu was sure of where the two were going. And, he proved to be correct. Near the walls they saw the two, bags packed, walking toward a tiny tunnel that had led through the world.

The two were silent, and as they walked through the twilight of a post sunset Ba Sing Se, the world seemed to join in the silence.

There was no sadness as they left. Even little Shifu didn't cry. There were no friends coming to see them off, no tear ridden goodbyes, nor any sort of cries for them to stay. Merely the two left as they had lived, faceless nobodies in a world of somebodies.

The Lee's left as Muzen and Yatzen walked into the tunnel. As far as they were concerned, the two were gone. They had died and would never return.

They were correct. Yatzen and Muzen were dead. The two that had once walked the streets of Ba Sing Se were gone. But, Yatzen and Muzen were being reborn. As they walked through that tunnel, they were being reborn into a different world. Through a dark tunnel, they exited the walls of the capital, and entered into a world of freedoms.

It was night as the two walked out of Ba Sing Se, but they walked on, searching for a place to finally rest. The ground had dried remarkably quickly that day, and as they walked on, mud was no issue to the two. Still, after a few yards of walking, Muzen stopped.

For a moment, she turned back toward the city that had taken her childhood. Guards were outside, appearing sleepy and bored. But, beyond them, she needed to look up to see the top of the walls.

Out of her pocket, her hand had grabbed something, although the darkness obscured it. Still, the guards could tell what it was after a moment. It was a necklace. They had watched as she donned it.

And, as quickly as she had stopped, she turned and continued walking. Her brother had stopped, and was waiting impatiently for her. After a second of slightly running, she reached her brother. And, the two renewed their walking, appearing as two shadows returning to the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

_CHAPTER II_

"Hey Muzen, look over there. You see it right?"

On their second day of traveling, Yatzen had said those words to his sister, Muzen. The two were exhausted, finding that the quality of their sleep had been poor. Woken hourly by a slight paranoia of noises in the still of the night coupled with awakening with sunrise had made them both sleep deprived. And, at the same time, they both had never realized the true exhaustion of walking distances with a load.

"You mean by the fruit stand?" Muzen responded. Because of the slight rain of the area earlier, all manners of bugs had been out, and they had both discovered insects of a plethora of varieties. Although they had ample food, they had never even considered the water requirements that they would need. Both were badly dehydrated by that point, although neither of the two were aware of it.

"Yep, just look at the trouble he's in," Yatzen said looking at a child no older than twelve being grabbed by a rather large looking young man in an Earth Nation uniform while an angry street vendor looked on. Two days of walking had worn through their shoes and feet quickly. Both had blisters, although they had maintained their feet rather well for their experience level. Their feet ached by the end of the first day, so when the first glimpses of a town had appeared over the horizon, they had quickly made the decision to take a brief visit.

"I bet I can convince that cop and vendor to forget about the kid," Muzen said with a slight grin. The town was tiny. In reality, by far the busiest looking building was a tavern, and there were few stores to pick up supplies, with downright laughably small selections.

"This I got to see," Yatzen laughed out.

Within a second, of hearing his response, Muzen had dropped her backpack, and pulled her top down slightly, revealing her cleavage. She tightened her pants next, making her clothes show off her hips and buttocks. She wasn't an unattractive female, merely she had a sort of rural beauty. Compared to the carefully tailored and groomed beauty of the Ba Sing Se, she seemed out of place, as if a flower that grew upon the sides of the road was placed alongside the carefully grown flowers of a botanist. But, away from the walled-in city, she became more of the norm for attractive females.

She pulled out a mirror that she carried with her, and she looked at herself, carefully looking at her face and body. She smiled into the looking glass with an approving look, and tucked it back into her backpack.

Muzen walked toward the spectacle with the sort of confident stroll that most girls had when they were well aware of their assets, and were willing to show them off. Oddly, she had perfected the trick while mocking other girls, and had found a skill: instead of a parody, she had pulled off flawlessly copying their technique.

The shop vendor noticed her first. As she walked slightly toward a nearby general store, he watched her. Muzen could tell that he was observing her, but as she slightly glanced toward his stand, appearing as if she was a traveler merely looking around, she could see no lust for anything of hers but her money in his eyes.

Muzen was somewhat stubborn. In reality, it was more of seeing Yatzen smug face at her failure that propelled Muzen toward the vendor. She maintained her composure, continuing to confidently stride toward the vendor.

The vendor's words were typical of that time, talking about his produce being the freshest and the best value. Muzen did continue her act. She appeared to retain her innocence, appearing to be hung upon each and every one of his words.

She leaned over toward the food, clearly and somewhat blatantly showing her intentions and cleavage. And, she carefully eyed over her food, looking over his goods. It was likely grown from one of the farms that they had passed on their walk there. Unfortunately, all the vegetables were rather poor looking; evidently the parched summer had taken its toll.

Still, she looked up, and forcing a slight blush and a smile, she decided to use her words.

"It's too bad. I wish this summer had been a bit wetter. Is there _any_ way you have any healthier vegetables?"

For a second, the shop vendor merely seemed to stare toward her, yet neither lust nor desire nor longing seem to be in his eyes. Only a slightly unimpressed look crossed across his face as he began to speak. He hushed his voice, partially trying to make sure that only she could hear him.

"Listen kid, you're trying pretty hard, I can tell that, but it won't work. My wife is _flaming_ hot."

"Oh," Muzen said as she stood up, feeling and sounding defeated. As she turned around to return from her failed attempt, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the boy, still waiting, glaring at the policeman who held him by the wrist so he could not escape. Yet, the policeman appeared to be staring at her.

Although he was trying to hide it, the policeman was staring at her with lustful eyes. Her attempts had merely been directed toward the wrong person; that was all.

She looked toward him, with the all too common curious look.

"What do we have here? Was this child misbehaving?"

"Yes miss, caught him stealing from this stand," the policeman said. His accent was terrible. He truly had no formal education, Muzen was almost sure of that. Still through her own lack of interest in the man, she forced herself to go on.

"Really? What a naughty child. But, I've been naughty myself," Muzen said. She had messed up. In Ba Sing Se, in the worse parts, she had heard prostitutes say those kinds of things, or at least she thought they were prostitutes. Sounding like a prostitute in front of a policeman was a good way to get herself thrown in jail or worse.

Still, the policeman appeared to have never been subjected to the darker realities of the city. That was in Muzen's favor.

"Oh come now, what could a little innocent flower like you have done, miss?" the policeman asked. "Whatever it is, I bet it's not that serious."

"Well, I, well," Muzen stuttered out, looking down in an attempt to simultaneously emote guilt and try to think her way out of her situation. "I tricked my little brother into stealing."

For a second, there was silence. Muzen had grown bold in her lying, so bold that she had dared to tell a lie that was painfully obvious. A mere half-minute earlier, she had acted as if the boy was a complete stranger. So, she kept her head down, waiting for the policeman to call her out.

"Oh, so this is your little brother?" the policeman asked, "Now I see the resemblance." Muzen had no idea what the policeman was talking about. She and the boy looked completely different. He had different skin tones than hers, their faces looked completely different, and quite frankly between the two of them, the only common factor was they were both dirt poor.

"Sorry. I didn't think my brother was that gullible. Please, it's all my fault. Could you possibly just keep this our little secret?"

"Well…" The policeman said to himself. He was fighting amongst himself. His uniform called one way, but something else pulled him away. Muzen was sure that he was attracted to her; he had looked upon her with eyes of yearning and the way he spoke to her, as if he were being a bit too polite for normal circumstances.

"Your brother didn't really do anything that wrong. I suppose I could let him off with a warning. Miss?"

"Muzen. And, thank you." She smiled, attempting to appear to be the simple small town girl.

"My name's Tetung by the way. Pleasure to meet you. Maybe when I'm off duty I could buy you a drink some time."

"I'd like that." Muzen said. She watched as the young man let go of the boy's wrist and he looked back at him with a glare before walking toward Muzen.

"Come on sis. Mom and dad have dinner waiting," the boy said before grabbing Muzen's hand and pulling her away from the man.

"That's a lovely necklace by the way," Muzen heard Tetung say as she turned to walk away. She turned slightly to see him once more, and she gave a slight smile in appreciation of his compliment.

As she turned to look toward Yatzen, she could see him smiling laughing slightly even. She had succeeded, but Yatzen wasn't laughing in surprise. He realized the truth. She was slightly attracted to the policeman herself. Although, she wasn't sure herself, Yatzen could tell that Muzen was faintly enticed by him. Still, he didn't have too much time to truly react to the situation. Tetung was watching Muzen, seemingly reveling in the dream of her attention. Seeing her walk toward another male her age would be troublesome at best.

Yatzen grabbed Muzen's bag, and, without even glancing toward her, he turned and walked down the nearest street, appearing to be merely called to other affairs.

Muzen and the boy walked down the same street a few seconds afterword. They acted naturally well together, almost seemingly complementing one-another, although it was impossible to see why. They just seemed like they were natural family. When Yatzen first saw the two as they walked down the street he had hidden in, he swore that his sister had found some long lost family member that looked completely different. Still, as he began to speak, the two ceased holding hands, and they began to once more seem like complete strangers.

"Color me impressed," Yatzen said. "You actually managed to pull it off."

"Well, what do you expect from the master?" Muzen responded, grinning as if she was a sort of queen. "I bet I could have gotten that cop to apologize."

"Yeah, sure," Yatzen said. "Just offer a touch rather than a look. You'd go pretty far."

Muzen, at that moment, seemed to blush and be flustered by her brother's words. Although unafraid of showing off to suit her means, a whore she was not. For a moment, she had tried to come up with any sort of witty response, but nothing had come to mind. So she merely continued blushing and glaring until a completely foreign voice entered her ears.

"You two aren't from around here are you?"

In a second, both Muzen and Yatzen both knew who had said it. It was a younger child's voice. And, although he had seemed to have left their world, both Muzen and Yatzen turned their heads to see the same young boy that Muzen had claimed to be the older sister of mere minutes before.

"Was it our backpacks or the fact that nobody knows us in a shit-small town give us away?" Yatzen said. He spoke in pure monotones and with a look of superiority on his face. But, the child's reaction was odd. Instead of appearing annoyed or defeated, he smiled.

"No," the child responded, his smile growing larger, "It's because _sis_ agreed to go out on a date with the biggest man-whore in three towns."

Silence took to the three as Muzen began to regret her decision. And at the same time, the child began laughing slightly to himself.

"My name's Kai by the way," the boy stated, "Thanks for helping me out back there. Mom and dad would have hemorrhaged if that guy brought me back home."

"Name's Muzen. And, I'm just that kind of person. I give and give some more. Back home I even was known as the giver."

"Yeah," young Kai said, smiling and giggling to himself slightly, "Bullshit."

Muzen seemed to be visibly annoyed by the surprisingly age-defying response of the mere child. But, after what had been a mere second of annoyance, she folded her arms and leaned toward the child.

"Aren't we a bit young to be swearing?" Muzen asked with a slightly vindictive grin. "Or maybe we really need to rethink how our life's going, as in, oh say, not stealing."

"Hey, it's not my fault; I got dared to do it."

For a moment, Yatzen looked on and chucked to himself. It was ironic. Some five of six years earlier, he had given his mother the same excuse for nearly the same situation. And, he looked toward the young boy.

"Kid, take this as a bit of advice: don't take dares. They only end up with you going on dates with fat chicks, licking half moldy foods, and, or, sticking your hands down other men's pants in the winter for no reason whatsoever." Yatzen said, simultaneously seeming regretful and nostalgic, "And, you know, after that you're just the dare moron."

For a second, Kai seemed to be in awe of Yatzen's words. Even Muzen seemed to be impressed. Yatzen had seldom appeared intelligent in any way. He had always seemed like an idiot who wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty. Yet, for a single second, right as he had started speaking, he truly seemed to be a wise older brother.

"Wow," Kai responded, his voice full of reverence, "You stuck your hands in another guys pants."

In that moment, Yatzen seemed to wish to slam his head through a wall while Muzen broke out laughing.

"Yep, and old Yatzen here, he really impressed everybody, he went wrist deep with both hands. It was truly impressive. The poor guy nearly jumped out of his body after Yatzen's icy hands went right up against his"

"Muzen! Virgin ears! "Yatzen snapped out. "We don't need to taint his mind."

"What? I was going to say leg," Muzen said while clearly feigning innocence.

"Hey," the kid said, smiling wider than he usually had. "You don't have to edit for me, I know you were going to say balls. I even bet he squeezed too, just to make the dare more entertaining."

And with that simple statement, both Muzen and Yatzen looked toward the small boy. And, they both looked on at a boy, raised in such a rural town, yet completely devoid of the simplicity of the rural world.

"So, where are you two planning to sleep tonight?" Young Kai asked. "Because, as a bit of advice, the one place with beds around here doesn't bother to ever wash their sheets. And, believe me there are more than a few stories of people's hands sticking to the beds."

"How the hell do you…?" Muzen asked, her words trailing off.

"My dad talks about that kind of stuff all the time. And, you two are obviously flat out exhausted. I can tell by the way you two stand when you're not inviting a man-whore into your pants."

"So kid, just what do you propose we do?" Yatzen asked as if he was negotiating while a knife was pointed at his throat.

"Honestly, my parents love visitors." Kai said. "I bet they would be more than happy to put you up for the night."

For a second, Yatzen seemed to look on as if the child was attempting to sell something. His face and voice seemed to be completely honest in his statements. At the same time though, Kai has managed to appear to be an innocent rural boy while being more warped than most city children.

"I'd love to," Muzen said. A free bed and a meal sold the idea to Muzen. Although, Yatzen had failed to realize it, they really were getting more and more destitute by the day. Before, the two were poor, and in reality, their pitiful savings were rapidly depleting themselves. Although they hadn't realized it, traveling was expensive. Food, water, shoes, medicine, and clothing: it all cost more and more. And, any way to keep their little money for longer or somehow make more of it was of incredible importance.

So, Muzen grabbed her bag and walked toward the young boy. But, Yatzen hesitated.

"Coming?" Muzen asked as she looked back toward her brother. She seemed to be oddly curious, as if her brother's actions defied logic.

"My parents aren't cannibals if that's what you're thinking," Kai said as he looked toward Yatzen. "They just love having company, and nobody ever comes around this area."

The two sets of eyes stared toward the young man, simultaneously pleading and forcing him to submit to their will, to conform to their norm. There was no escape, no way to deal with their gazes. Leaving was out of the question for him. Even if he had, the guilt of abandoning the two would bring him back to the two. If he turned his head, they were still there, still staring, still waiting for his response.

"I guess I have no choice," he said, shaking his head and grabbing his backpack. "Where do you live?"

"Well, it's a bit of a walk," Kai said, smiling as Yatzen and Muzen both looked at him in a way that seemed to cuss at him for more walking. "But, it's not too far. And, that man-whore doesn't ever go out that way, so _sis_ here might be able to skip out on her hot date."

For a second, Muzen seemed to look pleased at the statement while Yatzen slightly laughed.

"Just follow me."

"So there we were," Muzen heard partway through the meal. "Me as a corporal, Private Xiang, and Private Hu."

Neither she nor her brother were particularly interested by Kai's father's ramblings. But, to make sure that they didn't seem ungrateful, the two felt they were obliged to listen to the stories that the old man told over the dinner table.

"Now we had never seen any sort of fighting in our entire stay in that town. People merely didn't seem to be aggressive there. Now, we had gone out of our way to make sure we were friendly with all of them, and that may have helped a bit. But, people in that town seemed to merely continue life as usual."

The family was oddly quaint, almost dreamlike despite their oddities. Perhaps it was just the corruption of city life, but Muzen and Yatzen had found the overly open style of Kai's parents to be almost disturbing. They had nearly welcomed the two into their home with next to no questions asked.

"Now we were all off duty that evening. We were even wearing their clothing. The briefings had told us to or else we might attract unwanted aggression."

For a few minutes after initially arriving, Muzen and Yatzen had even had creeping thoughts that, despite Kai's assurances, they were walking into a family of cannibals. That feeling had subsided, but there was something slightly odd about the parents.

"But while we were in the tavern, we had gotten a lot of attention. Every single person seemed to glance over at the three of us all the time. Now we had tried our best to be the perfect guests possible. Remember how large of a tip we had given, honey?"

"Oh my yes darling, it was nearly a fifty percent."

It wasn't something that was bad in any particularly large way. But, Muzen and Yatzen had realized after a single moment. They just didn't understand it, either.

"Now, we had decided to leave before we were too tipsy, or else we may have lost a good portion of our control. But, after we left, those three came running after us."

They had their wariness after realizing it. But, after a few minutes of seeing how he was treated by his family and how realistically he had acted, they were pretty sure he didn't have any negative intentions.

"Now I don't remember how exactly the fight began. In hindsight we may have been a bit tipsier than we believed, but I don't remember blacking out that badly. But, man, in that fight, we got the living shit beaten out of us. Xiang and Hu nearly cried for their mamas after that thrashing. And, wouldn't you know it, those two ran like hell. But, I was always a bit better in a fight than those two, and I refused run. Now in hindsight, that may have been because of the rather large blisters I had on my feet from those damned boots I had to wear."

"Honey, do try to keep from swearing so much," S's mother had stated. "Kai is right here."

"Oh, my apologies. Now, I remember that I wasn't going to use Firebending. But, somehow I had managed to get two to run away. Or, maybe I had managed to knock one out. I really can't remember."

The father was a Firebender. That was the thing that had confused Muzen and Yatzen. That was the only large thing. He even kept a full suit of armor standing aside their mantle proudly displaying his heritage.

"Now, I remember that I had managed to take one big hit to the noggin while in that fight, but I remember that I retained some level of lucidity."

From what they had been taught in schools, all the Fire Nation troops had left the Earth Kingdom after some kind of formal treaty had been written up. Yet, sitting across from them was a veritable former Fire Nation soldier.

"And, right when the fight was getting good, there came a pretty young waitress. Now, mama had taught me right, so I immediately stopped fighting. It just ain't right to fight in front of ladies. And, she came right up to the two of us, because I think at that point we were grappling. And I remember that she grabbed the other guy and proceeded to slap and cuss at him. And, then I swear to it that she threw that guy across the street."

"Now honey, I didn't manage to do all that."

"And, when she came up to me, she slapped me right across the cheek and proceeded to give me back my bag of money." Kai's father blushed slightly as the mother chuckled to herself slightly. "It turned out, I had left it back at the tavern, and she had asked those three to return it to me.

"She straight up slapped the drunk out of me. And, in that moment, I fell head over heels in love for her. Isn't love just knowing that your wife can both watch your money and throw other men? So, I went back to that bar every single off moment I had. And, when we got the orders to leave there, I just couldn't. On that day, I proposed to this woman. It's been a dream ever since."

"Um, wow," Muzen responded, "That's really amazing sir."

"Yep," Kai's father said, "All you have to do is find someone you really love and you'll never have an unhappy day in your life. But, you and your husband seem to know that pretty well already."

"Hus-band?" Muzen said, seeming feeling the word as it gave her creepy feelings. By no sense was Muzen afraid of marriage. But, she had a very eerie feeling that Kai's father had greatly misjudged her relationship with Yatzen.

She watched as Kai's father looked toward Yatzen, and then back toward her. The two slightly looked alike, but at the same time so did a good portion of couples. He looked toward Yatzen once more.

"You two aren't married? Then when's the marriage date? Or is it one of those types of steady relationships, where you don't believe in weddings?"

"She's my sister," Muzen heard. Yatzen had said it almost automatically, as if he wasn't going to waste time being surprised. He even sounded somewhat offended by the mere thought of being married to her. In reality, Muzen had felt the same way, although she had felt more shocked by the father's reaction.

"Older or younger?"

"_Twin_ sister."

"But, you two don't…"

"_Fraternal twin _sister."

"So is she in any sort of…"

"No."

"Then she's single?"

Yatzen smiled slightly in a saucy way.

"Sicko."

The father laughed at his response.

"I should introduce her to Tetung then," the father said. "I hear he's single."

Muzen blinked as the father said those words. A moment of fear had come over her. In reality, ever since Kai had told her about the truth about Tetung, she had wanted to avoid him until she and Yatzen left that town. But, the father had established himself to be a major hindrance in her plan with his single statement.

Kai couldn't even help but chuckle to himself.

"Have you met him yet?" The father asked her as he looked toward her, "He's a policeman around here."

"Why yes. Actually I met him right before meeting your son," Muzen said. If nothing else, Muzen's words immediately wiped any sense of humor off of Kai's face in an instant. Within a breath, both of his parents' eyes were immediately looking toward him, giving glares of death.

"What did you do this time, Kai?" his mother immediately asked.

"I didn't do anything," Kai responded, clearly on the defense, "That guy just hates me."

"He hates you because you always break the law," Kai's mother stated with a matter of fact tone.

"No!" Kai responded as his voice clearly showed anger.

"Well then Kai, why does he hate you?" his father said, looking slightly out of the corner of his eye toward his son. The look on his father's face told his feelings clearly. Kai was being an eyesore in front of his guests, and that Kai would pay for his actions later.

Kai grew silent after that, and his father and mother returned to playing the roles of the happy rural family with happy rural values. Though Yatzen and Muzen were never fully convinced afterword, they played along with the two's acts, biting their tongues at any smart remarks about the father and mother's obvious attempts to show off.

"Kai, why don't you show these two to the guest house."

Those words were the next time that Kai's parents even took notice of him. They were gearing up for a nightmarish punishment toward him. That both Muzen and Yatzen could sense.

Yet, he fully obeyed his mother. Without a word, Kai led the two to a somewhat dinky looking structure next to the farmhouse.

He kept his head down, and despite all his friendliness toward the two, he seemed oddly detached from himself, as if a sort of great tragedy was about to befall him.

Before reaching the door, Muzen stopped him.

"Kai, listen, I'm sorry. I… I didn't…"

And, for the first time since his father's words, Kai spoke. Although it was barely a shadow of his previous voice, he finally had said something.

"It's not your fault. My parents just won't ever understand. Tetung just hates me."

For a second, Yatzen seems to look toward the young boy with confusion.

"Why is that?"

Kai merely looked away, appearing to be hiding something, a truth, from the two.

"It's a secret isn't it?" Muzen asked. And, Kai looked toward her. "My brother and I have a bit of a secret too. If I tell you ours, will you tell us yours?"

"Stop it," Kai said at a volume barely above a whisper. "You two don't have any secrets that are anywhere near as large as mine. You're just trying to make me feel better."

After what had seemed like a moment of staring toward the boy, plotting any way to find a way into his head, an idea donned on her. Muzen looked toward Yatzen with a look that seemed to ask permission for something. And, after a moment of internal debate, Yatzen nodded.

Muzen grabbed the boy's head and put her mouth up against his ear. Within a moment, his eyes bugged open, as he looked toward Muzen. But, as quickly as she grabbed the boy's attention, she let go and stood up.

"C… could you show me?"

"No, were not very good, yet." Muzen responded, smiling as if she knew all. "We haven't known for too long. That's why we're traveling. There isn't enough water around here."

For a mere moment, a slight smile forced itself onto Kai's face. But, as Kai shook his head, it disappeared before a look of anger. He looked down, appearing to be spiteful about the very idea.

"The reason Tetung hates me, it's because I can Firebend."

"So, he hates you because you take after your father?" Yatzen responded with an unsure tone. Kai had treated his words like he was telling a big secret, but it wasn't all that impressive to Yatzen. In comparison to the secret he had let Muzen spill, Kai's revelation had seemed to be a total waste of time.

"Nope," Kai said, smiling somewhat. "He hates me because I'm special like him. He wants to be the only one." Yatzen's look at the kid, as if he was talking a different language, immediately convinced Kai to explain.

"What I mean is, both Tetung and I are so special that we aren't just Firebenders. We're Earthbeders too."

For a second Yatzen smiled. He had gotten a good secret out of the boy, one that had truly surprised him. He and his sister weren't alone.

"Why, don't you tell your parents? I bet they'd"

"I'm a freak to them," Kai said smiling as if the mere word meant nothing to him, "But, I"

"**HURRY UP KAI!**"

Within an instant, the three nearly shook in fear. It didn't sound like a person was calling for Kai. Instead, it seemed like a monster was roaring from the cave of his house, demanding Kai as the main course.

"Shit," Muzen whispered as Kai seemed to look back toward his home.

"The guest house is right over there, okay?" Kai said, clearly trying to hurry through everything. "It's not too big, but there are two full beds in okay condition. And…" He paused for a second, seemingly preparing to say something important. "I…"

The boy seemed to try to say something, as if he wanted to tell them that he would be okay. But, he had stopped after the first word, seemingly groping for any words. After a shake his head, almost appearing to remind himself of his parents growing annoyance, Kai turned and ran back toward his home, toward his awaiting parents, and toward a sure beating. He had tried to put on a strong face, but he was clearly bluffing. Muzen and Yatzen could see it; he was searching for a way to escape, searching for a way, any way, to just run away from his parents. But, he opened the front door the farmhouse, and walked in.

"Hey Yatzen," Muzen said. She sounded like she had seen a horror, as if she had just watched someone die, and was attempting to force herself to speak.

"Yeah Muzen?" Yatzen asked. He tried to seem compassionate, even though he wasn't entirely sure why his sister had acted the way she had. He only knew not to upset her more.

"Do," Muzen stopped momentarily, appearing to need to swallow something. "You think there's anything to do around here?" Her speech was slow, as if she had to fight to get each and every word out of her mouth.

"There's the tavern. So, sorry, unless you"

"Good," Muzen immediately stated. "I need something to drink, something hard."

At that point Yatzen finally realized why Muzen was acting so strangely.

His mother had never laid a hand on him. For some reason, she had never even touched him when he had been naughty. Even when he had come home escorted by two policemen, his mother had merely turned away, as if his actions had caused her pain. Eventually, when he was a bit older, he began to understand it. His mother had said he looked like his father. That simple statement had explained a lot to him. Perhaps it was fear, perhaps it was love, perhaps it was something else that had caused her pacifism. But, as far as he could understand, she viewed hitting him as hitting his father. So, she had never dared to do it.

But, the exact opposite was true for his sister. If his mother did indeed see his father in him, she saw herself in Muzen, and his mother hated herself. His mother had beaten Muzen for any reason whatsoever, even for no reason. Some days, she'd make one up; some days, she'd find a mistake. His sister had even been beaten for his mistakes on more than one occasion. And, his mother was very skilled at talking like the worst of women did. She could lie, twist views, and make his little sister seem like she was the cause of everything wrong in the world. Most parents seemed to understand when to stop, but it seemed like his mother kept hitting her for hours. Some days, Muzen would merely seem to will her body to her bed, only to fall into it, without saying a word. Merely, her eyes seemed to have a sort of emptiness inside of them, as if nothing human was left inside. And, she cried.

So, Yatzen had a pretty good idea of Muzen's angle. She had thought about Kai's beatings. And, when she did, she had remembered all of her old memories that she had tried to merely box up in that old home. That was Yatzen's theory about her actions. She wanted to drink, drink so hard that she couldn't even remember her first name, much less anything about Kai.

It wasn't the first time the two had walked into a tavern either. They had done it before, at one point even gotten so drunk that they hadn't been able to remember their own address and had slept on the street. So, as they entered the tavern, they didn't seem like two teens trying to sneak in to be the first of their friends to drink like all the older teens do. They seemed to be two young adults, trying to get a drink after a long day.

Muzen's eyes scanned across the tavern, making sure that there wasn't anyone watching them. As far as she could tell, it was all half-drunk farmers, drinking so they could forget the trouble of the worst drought in half a century. Nobody seemed to be watching her or her brother, until she locked eyes with someone. In that single moment, she nearly fainted.

Staring back at her was Tetung. He was out of uniform, evidently off duty, sitting at a table right next to the door and right next to where she was standing, and well on his way to being completely drunk. And, without a glance even Yatzen could tell that he wanted his sister.

"Hey, Muzen! Come over, relax, I don't bite," he immediately said. His speech wasn't terribly slurred, and he didn't smell outrageously badly of alcohol. Tetung had barely taken notice of Yatzen either. He merely seemed to be acting friendly, like a boy prying for a girl's attention instead of a man wanting another trophy on his list.

"I'll be over there," Yatzen said quietly and discretely before walking toward the counter. He wanted to be seen as a complete stranger to his sister, that way Tetung wouldn't make the same assumption of Kai's father, and make more trouble for his sister.

So, Muzen sat down next to Tetung, still scanning around the bar for anyone even glancing toward her.

"Muzen calm down," Tetung said. "You seem a bit stressed out. What happened?"

"It's," Muzen said, taking a breath, "just been a long day."

"Ah, I know what you need," Tetung said, sounding as if he understood everything about Muzen. For a second she looked toward him, fearfully wondering if he had implied something sexual.

"Waitress? We need another round!" Tetung yelled out. For a second he paused, appearing to rethink his order. "No, make that five or six more rounds!"

Yatzen had heard the order; the entire bar had heard it. But, instead of being annoyed he laughed. Free alcohol was free alcohol, so Muzen would merely have to watch out for herself, and be careful.

Unfortunately, nothing free was going to come his way. So, he sat down at the bar and tried to think about what drink and how much of it he could afford. And, as he attempted reconsidering the value of personal finance classes, he couldn't help but overhear the conversation of two men to the right of him.

Both were at the dangerous middle ground between having drunk a bit and being nearly completely drunk. They were older men, child raising age men, and apparently farmers. Yet, Yatzen had noticed something far different. They too were Firebenders. He was sure of it. They looked just like Kai's father. The way they pronounced each word seemed eerily similar to Kai's father's way as well. He just wasn't sure about what the two were talking about as he sat down.

"Naw man, it's awesome. Just think about it. It would be brilliant. I'd get any chick I want any time, just 'cause of it."

"No way. It'll never work."  
>"I'm telling you, you add one and all of the sudden, you'd become the most awesome guy anywhere you go, 'cept maybe a pirate convention."<p>

"Fine, let's ask this guy."

For a moment Yatzen's eyes bugged open as he realized that he was the "this guy". He hadn't wanted to get involved in the affairs of that town too much, especially the alcohol consumers. By experience, drunken people always had spelled trouble for Yatzen.

"Hey buddy, wouldn't it be awesome to have a stuffed Reptile Bird on your shoulder?"

"Stuffed?" Yatzen repeated, somewhat wondering if the drunks were real and he was not in a particularly weird dream.

"Yeah, stuffed. If you had a Reptile Bird on your shoulder, after a while that damned thing would keep squalking and squalking. I'd probably kill any live one, but with a stuffed one on my shoulder, well. Well… All the ladies would think I'm one of those world traveling types, the real suave kinds, without all the noise and pooping."

"I knew a guy for a little while," Yatzen said, "Back in Ba Sing Se, tried the nearly same thing. Guy ended up finding out really quickly that those bearded cats do indeed go into heat, that and that cat sex with a stuffed one and a live one is still not entertaining shitfaced drunk." He tried to seem relatively quiet, as if he were himself: a normal traveler stopping in for a drink.

"I told you it wouldn't work," the further of the two stated. His drunken slur was nearly atrocious by that point, yet it barely phased Yatzen.

"Man, birds would be doing it right next to my… bird-reptile-thing on bird-reptile-thing action on my shoulder…"

The man seemed to look almost mortified before looking into his drink and within a second, slamming it back.

And, after a few moments for the cheap stuff to pass his throat, he looked toward Yatzen with a puzzled look.

"You're from Ba Sing Se, eh? Then you must be staying in one of the rooms upstairs. I got some advice for you. There's a whore around here somewhere, and supposedly if you"

"I'm… I'm staying with a family around here," Yatzen immediately blurted out.

"Oh, which one?"

"Uh, it's one of the farmers a bit away from here. I'm working for them as payment for lodging." Kai stated. "I think their son's named Kai."

"Oh, you mean Zhou. Hey Xiang, remember that time we gave that bitch waitress his money-bag so she could buy better makeup."

"Do I," the other Firebender said as he laughed and took another drink, "Bitch sent three thugs to beat the shit out of us. And, Zhou thought he could take them."

Yatzen watched as the two broke into hysterics all the while drinking. After a second, he finally broke down and pulled out enough for the cheapest drink available and slid it forth, the bartender nodding in acknowledgement and comprehension.

"I see his son around the shop all the time," the farther of the two Firebenders said. "He acts just like Zhou back in the day."

"And one day, he'll be just like the asshole: alcoholic, psychopathic as fuck, wife beating, and dumb as hell," the nearer of the two F's said smiling as if everything he had said was a great honor.

Yatzen grabbed his liquor after a second and took a drink. A drink would make everything make sense. That was what Yatzen had thought. The other two kept drinking as if they were toasting a horrid future for an unfortunate boy. But, before he could even finish his drink though, a noise entered his ear.

It was the sound of a slap across the face, and although the noise cane behind Yatzen and therefore out of his sight range, Yatzen knew that it had come from Muzen and Tetung's table.

He wasn't the only one who had heard it. It seemed like half the tavern had heard it, and was turning with him, wanting to see who had slapped who. Muzen had. He could see the hand imprint across Tetung's face, and although he wasn't entirely sure why, he could venture a fairly educated guess.

His eyes scanned across their table first. The two had been busy. From what Yatzen could tell, the two had already finished all the drinks that Tetung had ordered, but he was nearly sure that Muzen was still nowhere near drunk. The girl had always held an astounding alcohol tolerance, out-drinking grown men on occasion.

Muzen was standing at that point, and Tetung seemed to be utterly dumbfounded by Muzen's reaction. He seemed to be caught off guard, surprised and hopelessly grasping at anything to say to recover. Muzen wouldn't let him, though. Before, even a single second thought, though, she stormed out, seemingly enraged by whatever had transpired.

Yatzen hesitated exiting that tavern. Leaving right after her may have been troublesome. That was what he had thought. Muzen would understand. So, he took his time finishing his drink, took his time feeling his teeth seem to crack with the sheer cheapness of the stuff he had purchased as it burned down his throat, and left as quietly as he had entered. Tetung was still there, drinking again, and from what he could see, making advance after advance toward a poor waitress.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Tetung's hand began moving toward the waitress, waiting for the perfect time for a feel. As he turned away, Yatzen could hear a shriek by the waitress as the hand made contact. And, while slightly smiling, he left.

"Took you long enough," Yatzen heard Muzen say as walked out the door. The way she held herself told him everything. Whatever had happened to his sister in the bar had largely made her forget about what had driven her to drink in the first place. The way she stood, it told him that his sister was more annoyed and angered than anything else. But, all her bad memories had largely been forgotten for the time being.

"Got held up by two drunks' conversation," Yatzen lied. "What happened? Did your little date not go as expected?"

"Ass," Muzen said as she shot a glare toward him. "I'm not a whore. I'm not. But… But, every single man seems to think that they can get a free ride out of me. Is it impossible to find someone to have a non sex-based relationship?"

"He touched?" Yatzen immediately said. And, for a second, Muzen seemed visibly annoyed at Yatzen's quick reaction.

"Yeah yeah, he touched," she said, blushing slightly. "Evidently, the tavern's out of the options now."

"Yeah, well we might as well head back anyway," Yatzen said to a sister who seemed to be utterly dreading returning. "No parents would still be beating their children. It's been too long. They'd have to be crazy to be still beating him."

"Yeah," Muzen responded, trying to forget about all of her previous nightmares that replayed themselves over and over again. "I hope so."

Their walk back to Kai's family's farm was oddly silent. Muzen's attempts to drink herself into a stupor where she would not remember anything had for the most part failed. She was furious about it: furious, depressed, and feeling like she needed another drink. Her brother had been able to pick up on her state, so he hadn't really hadn't wanted to start up any sort of conversation. Merely, he had walked their entire way to Kai's house attempting to think of any way to cheer up his sister. But, as far as he could see, the only way that Muzen would be pleased was if she could personally beat the living daylights out of Kai's parents. For a moment, as the two had reached the Kai's old house, Yatzen almost thought about doing it himself.

The house itself, was eerily quiet. The night in the countryside seemed so still compared to the city, to an extent that the two had never heard any silence of the sort except when being passed by funerals. As they looked toward the house their odd feeling grew. All the lamps were still lit and burning, so evidently his parents were still up.

"Hey Muzen, didn't they have that big old jug of water in their kitchen?" Yatzen immediately asked.

"Yatzen…" his sister responded with rising apprehension. She had seen through his attempt to hide his desires, and she nearly couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"What? Yatzen asked, feigning innocence. "I'm thirsty, and well water doesn't really seem all that healthy."

"Damnit Yatzen!" Muzen said as her brother walked toward their door. "That water came from a well and you know it. Don't pull this bullshit."

Yatzen knocked. "Nah, I'm telling you, they like boil it or something. It tasted way better than the crap that comes out of those wells."

"It's the same stuff," Muzen said as her brother seemed to pound on the door so hard that it seemed like he attempted to knock it off its hinges. After a moment of waiting, Yatzen pressed his ear up to the door.

"It's quiet in there."

"Great," Muzen immediately quipped. "They must be out." Her brother smiled at that statement.

"Good, if they're out, then nobody will see us do this." And, with that statement, Yatzen opened the door and proceeded to walk in, seemingly un-phased by the crime he was committing.

As soon as Muzen and Yatzen walked in, they seemed to be oddly on edge by the house itself. The dishes from dinner remained, dirty and in the same place as they were before, as if dinner itself had ended mere moments before, even though hours had passed. Kai's parents seemed like the type to be obsessively clean, the unique cut of people that would never leave dirty dishes lying around unless something dire had happened.

Yatzen grabbed his cup from their earlier dinner ad walked over to the jug filled with water. Nearly silently, he proceeded to fill it up and sipped it. And, after a second, he put it down with a smile on his face.

"I think you're right," he whispered out, "That water tastes just like it was well water."

Still, despite his smile and humorous tone, his sister kept a serious look on her face.

"Great," she whispered, "Let's get what they call the fuck out of here."

"Nah."

"NAH?" Muzen seemed to yell out while she whispered.

"If Kai's parents are out or something," Yatzen whispered. "I bet he could use some cheering up."

"Oh I know this is going to end badly," Muzen whispered as she followed after her brother.

Despite their common sense telling them that Kai's parents were gone, instinct dictated that the two were to remain as quiet as possible. It was odd; they seemed to be sneaking around an empty home, yet some feeling told them that nobody had left.

For a moment, before deciding that he had read far too many thrillers and listened to far too many tales of horror, Yatzen had felt like behind any door, Kai's parents were going to be waiting. They would look upon him holding a bloody knife, with a sort of look on their faces that he had seen only in his nightmares. Whatever remained of Kai, probably a mutilated and bloody corpse, would be lying on the ground behind them. The poor boy would look so afraid; he'd be crying and have a look of screaming on his face. And, before Yatzen could even move to run, Kai's parents would take a second life.

But, as he walked down the hallway toward where all the bedrooms seemed to be, Yatzen could faintly hear a sound of heavy breathing. Muzen had heard it at the same time, and after a glance from her brother, she got the picture. They continued, but with a conscious effort to make no sounds whatsoever. Their footsteps seemed to come amazingly slowly, touching down so delicately with each foot that it seemed as if they were walking on rice paper. Their breath silenced, and they seemed to focus on the sounds that they could hear.

The heavy breathing wasn't the sort of pant of a person that had done exhausting work. It was the exact opposite. There was a sort of shudder to it. And, they could tell that it hadn't come from a fully grown man. It was coming from Kai. They were sure of it. And, they thought they could tell which room he was in.

Its door was cracked ever so slightly, and light seemed to pour into the dim hallway. They smiled slightly, but they were a bit too cautious to merely go rumbling in. They still had the odd fear of Kai's parents being around, waiting in the room.

So, Yatzen crept toward the door, moving in complete silence. He reached the crack in the door, and looked in, and after a second, his eyes froze in surprise. He backed up after a second, and seemed to stare onward. He was shaking his head, seemingly trying to say no to everything, but his mouth was closed. Muzen recognized his expression after a moment.

Yatzen had always been a relatively stable person. When the two had first discovered that their mother was dead, Yatzen had shown a sort of military bearing. While they had watched his mother's condition deteriorate, he was the one who had acted as a rock in the storm of confusion and unease that had followed. But, when he had looked through the crack and seen the room, something had broken the stability. Something had shaken him deeper than anything ever had.

Within a second, Muzen was nearly running toward the door. Gone were her fears about being caught for intruding. Gone were her inhibitions about being heard. Gone was any sort of desire to merely get out. Something was wrong in that room. And, despite her logic saying to flee, she couldn't. Her curiosity demanded she see the truth, to see what had happened.

Before her brother could even realize what had happened, her fingers closed around the door, and she flung it open. In that single moment, the light of the room filled the hallway, revealing all the secrets of the room to the two. All that in the room was clearly in view for the two.

"Oh… oh shit."

Kai was in the room. He was sitting in the corner, his knees against his head, and his legs tucked in toward him. Bruises were visible upon his legs and arms, proof of the beating he had taken. His face had a look like he had seen something horrid, and he had been crying. But, they had barely even taken a second glance in his direction. Instead, right in front of him, lay the true reason they had been so surprised.

In front of him, bloody and almost fearful looking, laid his parents bodies. They had been cut open, cleaved like meat in front of a butcher, and there was so much blood. A pool of it had formed on the floor, and it seemed to spread everywhere, almost as if it wanted to cover the world in red.

Muzen, as she saw what her brother had seen, nearly fell over. She felt her stomach turning, as if she were about to puke, but she didn't. Even though the smell of blood had been nearly overpowering as soon as she had opened the door, it wouldn't make her puke. Somehow, even though her body seemed to be ready to force up all the alcohol and food in her stomach, it wouldn't. Puking might have made her feel better, but her stomach fiercely held onto its contents.

By, that point, her brother had halfway recovered from the initial shock of seeing the dead bodies, and had begun to look upon the room. He had a very simple question to which he wanted the answer. How had it all happened? Kai physically couldn't have done it. He was far too weak to have forced his way past two fully grown adults, even if he had managed to find a blade. Kai looked around the room. There was, mounted on a wall, the sheath of a short sword, but there was no sword in it. He looked further around the room, searching for the damned blade. Perhaps some robber had stolen it, thinking it valuable. But, after a second, that school of thought died. Against the wall was the blade, or what remained of it.

"Muzen," Yatzen began, while he kept his voice down, "Look right over toward the wall." His sister followed suit, although she seemed to force herself to. The sheer sight of the blood had shaken her more than him. "You do see it right?"

The sword was covered in blood: it had clearly killed the two. But, that was the very least of their concerns. Although its hit and guard matched the sheath on the wall, the actual blade couldn't have fit into the sheath. Something had happened to the blade, something unnatural. It looked like it had melted, seemingly forming another puddle, but neither of the two could possibly think of a way that the metal would melt as it had without being heated to unreal levels.

"_I didn't want them to die._"

Both Muzen and Yatzen nearly jumped at hearing the statement. Although they did recognize the voice, it had surprised them. For some reason, they hadn't expected Kai to even be able to do anything, merely regarding him as a sort of breathing furniture. They turned to him after a surprised breath, and watched as he spoke again. His voice had a surprisingly saddened tone, and while he spoke he had a sort of thousand yard stare, his eyes never moving from a single spot in the room.

"I didn't want to see them die. But, they kept hitting me. I wanted them to stop. I wanted them to just stop, to just have everything end. And, the metal… the metal…" For a second, Kai seemed to shake his head almost in denial of some thought. "Oh shit."

For a moment, Muzen and Yatzen began to realize the truth. Although neither of the two, nor Kai himself could understand how, he had murdered his parents.

"They're gone. Oh shit. What's going to happen? What will the police say? Oh, oh shit."

"Yatzen," Muzen said with a respectfully hushed tone. "They'll…."

"They'll think I murdered them," Kai blurted out. His speech and tone were cracking, eroding as he seemed to fight breaking down into tears. "Oh shit." And, as he said that, he finally had started crying. He looked utterly pathetic, and as he did, Muzen and Yatzen began to wonder about him. Although at first they had thought that he had murdered the two, and such fears had caused them to willfully keep their distance, his words and his tears began to make the two wonder. He didn't seem like a cold blooded murderer; merely, he seemed like a boy. And, that simple bit of humanity had made Muzen and Yatzen change everything.

"Muzen," Yatzen whispered. He kept his voice down even though Kai seemed to be crying too loudly to hear. "We have to do something."

"I know," Muzen whispered, as she grasped for any idea. "We have to get rid of the bodies somehow."

"Bury them out back?" Yatzen asked in whispers.

"It'd be too messy."

"Burn them?"

Muzen remained silent for several seconds after hearing her brother's option. Her eyes had lit up as if she had seen an idea with true promise.

"Yeah. What if we were to make it look like a house fire? Everything burns down and it all looks an accident."

"But, what about Kai?"

Kai had looked toward the two, and he seemed to freeze. There was so much uncertainty in his face, so much fear. Before Muzen and Yatzen sat a boy with no hope, no options, and no future. Merely, he seemed to come to the end of his road, the end of his journey, and he wasn't even dead: he was trapped.

Muzen looked upon the boy for a few moments, considering their options, considering his future. And, after a few seconds, she walked toward the Kai. A pool of blood separated the two, yet Muzen seemed to walk as if it didn't exist. The blood was staining her shoes, soaking into the leather soles, but she walked as if it wasn't at all in existence.

Yatzen watched as she stopped short of Kai, and took a knee in front of him. She had an oddly serene look on her face, as if something magical was happening in front of her. For a moment, it seemed that the three weren't in a room of death and blood, where a child was beaten; instead it was as if the three were in a temple where the faint sounds of hymns could be heard, bringing peace to the entire place. There was no fear, no confusion, nothing to keep a soul up at night. And, time itself seemed to slow, almost to a restful pace in that moment.

"Kai," Muzen's voice started to say. There was no apprehension, no harsh thorns of pitch to get ensnared by; her voice appeared to be completely soft. "Do you want to come with us?"

A new road had opened for Kai. That was how he had seen it. A road had ended, and as soon as he had begun to lose hope, another option had opened to him. There was another option. There always was another one. Kai merely hadn't realized it.

"Y… yeah," Kai said, his voice trembling. Yatzen smiled somewhat at the boy's response. He closed his eyes for a mere moment.

"Three jugs of water, four pairs of clothes, all their food that won't go bad in a few days, those shoes with the best overall soles, all of their money, any jewelry that looks like it could fetch a price, that large pot and pan, that pile of assorted cooking utensils, the tent, those two swords, that gigantic freaking knife, those three canteens, their spark rocks, and, and why is that bowl of noodles lying there?" Muzen asked as she looked upon the odd bowl lying amongst the small pile of things upon the table.

"Midnight snack, obviously," Kai responded as he grabbed the bowl. "They made some excellent noodles, and I got really, _really_ hungry, hauling all this shit down here. You know how much it all weighed?"

"How do you plan to carry all this stuff anyway?" Muzen asked, "Even with another person with us, there isn't a damn way we can manage to carry all of this stuff on our backs, especially considering the fact that Kai's too young to carry too much."

"It's not too much for him to carry. Back when I was his age, I used to carry you around everywhere, even when you went through that… chubby… stage…"

Yatzen seemed to freeze as he spoke those words. He had enraged his sister, and despite her being smaller than him, Muzen could be as dangerous as a fully grown Gorilla Goat. Her very eyes seemed to reach out and strangle him.

"Okay. That was my mistake. I'll admit that I should not have said that," Yatzen said as he stepped backward slowly, as if he were staring down a dangerous and territorial beast. His very speaking style seemed to sound as if he was negotiating in a hostage situation.

"Yatzen… Just start running…"

Outside, young Kai could hear their conversation and had begun to laugh to himself slightly. He slowly moved toward the door listening for any further sounds he could hear.

"Hot, hot, HOT!" Yatzen's voice seemed to yelp out.

"Oh shit! Those were hot? How? You okay, Yatzen?"

"You…"

And, as Kai walked into the room, Muzen seemed to give her brother a gesture that insinuated that he desperately needed to stop whatever he was about to say. Yatzen seemed to understand and watched as the boy looked toward him.

Yatzen had been covered in noodles. It seemed that the entire bowl he had held in his hand was on his face and shoulders, with his face and shirt dripping wet from the broth that was amongst them. His face and neck were red as well, appearing to have been slightly cooked by steaming hot food.

"Awww, I never get to watch food fights," Kai said as he laughed slightly.

"Stick around," Yatzen quipped as he pulled noodles away from his face and shoulders. "Eventually, a certain female will end up throwing food at you."

"Shut it Yatzen!" Muzen snapped out as her mood visibly seemed to turn sour. "And, Kai, where have you been all night while Yatzen and I hauled down all this stuff."

"Oh, you hauled down all this stuff?" Yatzen retorted as he grew a snide smile. "Every time I saw this girl, Kai, she was looking through your parent's jewelry."

"Some of that can fetch a good price!" Muzen nearly yelled back. "If you want to inspect them, go ahead, but I bet that your eyes can't tell the difference between a quality gem and colored glass."

"I bet it can fetch a good price!" Kai seemed to growl back through gritted teeth. "But, that's only if a certain person is willing to part with it!"

"You two are gonna scare the animals," Kai said, his voice appearing as a whisper between the two's nearly yelling volume.

"Kai understands that we may need to sell some of it to get by!"

"Do I?" Kai asked to himself, smiling at his own humor at making a fight funnier to himself.

"I wasn't referring to Kai!" Yatzen growled out.

"I can give them up at any time!" Muzen yelled out. And, as she did, an odd sound seemed to enter the three's ears. Kai recognized it. He even felt slightly important having predicted it. It was the sound of three scared Ostrich Horses, apparently terrified by the loud sound.

"Told you two that you'd scare the animals."

"What animals?" Muzen asks.

"Muzen, you think this is a farm right?" Yatzen asks. "Well, most farms need more water than this area can provide so that it can grow enough food to sustain its owners. It's not a farm. It's a ranch."

"An Ostrich Horse ranch to be particular," Kai said.

"So then," Muzen said, an idea dawning on her, "Instead of walking, we could"

"Yes, we could ride around on the Ostrich Horses," Yatzen interrupted. "Hence, I got Kai to find his best three and release the rest, and hence the animal feed. Can we hurry this up? I'm getting tired."

"Fine princess," Muzen responded within a second. "Kai lets hurry up and get everything packed really quickly so Yatzen can get his nap."

And, Yatzen closed his eyes as a blink that comes to men only on the precipice of slumber seemed to crash through him. Fatigue was reaching him, even though he seemed to fight it as much as he could. As he reopened them, he prepared for a long night and an early morning. Between packing and waking before the dawn to make their last few preparations, he did manage to get a few hours of restful sleep, even though it seemed like he merely blinked and they were over. His last preparations were nearing completion by the time that Yatzen truly awakened, and began to have conscious thought rather than seemingly moving along as if a wind-up toy.

"Arson," Muzen said nearly laughing.

"What's so funny about it?"

"Well, before I fell asleep last night, I thought about something," Muzen said before grabbing a bowl full of lamp oil. "We're criminals, all three of us."

"Yeah so," Yatzen said picking up the rest of the large pot of the oil. While searching for anything of use or value, Yatzen had nearly died laughing at seeing such an amount of lamp oil. Quite frankly, even if he hadn't come along, eventually the house would have burned by some spark setting off the pot like an incendiary bomb. If it hadn't been too risky to have tried it, Yatzen probably wouldn't have bothered to come up with such a complicated scheme, instead lighting the pot on fire in the middle of the house and watching the fireworks.

"Well, between the assault charges we have to have in Ba Sing Se by now, underage drinking, assaulting an officer, all our theft, and now this arson, it seems to oddly fit that we have a kid with double homicide on his back coming with us, doesn't it? I swear if this journey goes on for too long, we ought to just have a cross country killing spree."

"Might be fun. Dump that all around Kai's old room. In fact, fill another bowl with the shit and dump it right on the, well, you know."

"Where is Kai, anyway?" Muzen asked as she grabbed another bowl.

"I think he's feeding the Ostrich Horses. That or sleeping near them. Either way, I'm not complaining. Having Kai help with this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"Might be the fumes messing with your tongue," Muzen said with a bit of a smirk while she filled the second bowl. "Just smelling this stuff is giving me a headache."

"Hurry up, then, the sooner you get this stuff dumped up there, the sooner we can get the hell out of here."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Muzen said, smiling, as she walked toward Kai's old room. Yatzen watched and heard the splash as the lamp oil splattered unceremoniously across the two dead bodies. His sister turned to go back to him, and as she did, Yatzen watched his sister's face. She seemed utterly uninterested in her job. Muzen had poured accelerants on a pair of dead bodies in a house they had robbed blind, and she seemed to look like she was merely walking around town. Most people wouldn't have even dared to sleep in that house, but they had slept and eaten in it as if nothing had happened. How long had he and his sister been so twisted, so incapable of being phased by death?

"So, what about the rest of this stuff?" Muzen asked as she returned to Yatzen.

"Simple," Yatzen responded, as he took a step behind it. "Get behind me, and get ready to haul ass." There was a pause, between everything as his sister slowly walked behind him. The room was silent except for her footsteps tapping upon the floor. And, as the last footstep stopped, everything began.

Yatzen raised his foot, and then proceeded to thrust it outward. The pot tipped over, covering the floor in the lamp oil. He and his sister ran from the flowing oil: starting up a fire did seem downright dangerous to them with a foot covered something extremely flammable. The door slammed behind them, and they both seemed to laugh at their success; both were remarkably untouched by the stuff. But, after a second, Yatzen stopped and moved toward a large rock that was outside the window. He threw it through the window, glass shattering and flying everywhere.

In the shadows of the Ostrich Horses, Kai watched the two. He had memories of that house. Some were bad, some were good, but they were all he truly had of everything in his life up until that moment. The farmhouse was the one place he could point to a decade later and lie to himself about his childhood not, frankly, sucking. And, Muzen and Yatzen were about to destroy it.

There was something else. The two had turned the destruction of his former home into a sort of wild party. They had laughed as they had outran the oil, seeking to burn the arsonists. They had been oddly chipper about pouring lamp oil across his house to make the fire even more consuming. Yatzen's overall action of smashing in the window had seemed like he was one of the Earth Rumble wrestlers, preparing to deliver a finishing blow. Was the destruction of his house truly that entertaining? Muzen had certainly seemed to think so. She had nearly laughed as bits of glass had shot toward Yatzen, as if it were funny. Their actions had seemed nearly manic to Kai.

But, Kai wasn't offended by their actions. He understood. It was a chance for the two to go crazy for a few fleeting moments: to live out the simple desire to destroy without repercussions, to simply break stuff without reason, to cast off the controls that everyone had put on them. And, Kai wanted to join in on the fun.

For so long he had been required to act as a perfect little soldier before his parents, and as they laid dead, about to receive their cremation, he was freed of them. He finally had felt like they were gone. And he wanted to act as the wild little boy that his parents had tried for so long to snuff out. They had nearly succeeded, but as soon as they were removed, he was free.

He took a step forward.

He hadn't said a thing, but the way he had stepped, it had a sort of gravity about it, and Muzen and Yatzen turned to see the boy walking toward them. Any sort of smile seemed to stop at that moment for the two, as they looked toward the boy, waiting for the boy to show any sort of emotion. They appeared frozen, waiting for the boy to yell at them to stop. They watched as he picked up a rock about the size of his fist and walked with it.

With each step, his feet made crunching sounds upon the dried grass, the only audible noise at that moment. Neither Muzen, nor Yatzen, nor the horses, nor birds, nor the earth itself dared to make a single sound as he walked toward the house. And, once he was barely past Yatzen, he stopped and inhaled, the rock still in his hand.

The boy took a step forth, and as he exhaled, he threw. The rock seemed to be aflame as he threw it. It hurtled through the air, silently flying toward its target. And, it hit it dead on. The window shattered as it flew through it, glass flying everywhere in a sort of firework celebrating the occurrence. And, as the rock seemed hurtle through the true fireworks began.

Flames seemed to erupt from the floor, and within a second, it seemed to leap out of the windows clawing for anything to burn further. Muzen and Yatzen stepped toward Kai, watching the fire as it consumed his chains to the town. The three were freed once again: free from society's rules and restrictions, and free from its protections. They left a few minutes after that, silently riding on into the rising sun, never to return but always to remember. As Kai rode away he looked back every few seconds, wondering what the town would believe, wondering what Tetung would do, wondering how he would be remembered, and wondering what would become.


End file.
